


Domestic Dreamer

by ForestFable



Category: Dreamer Trilogy - Maggie Stiefvater, Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam Parrish Loves Ronan Lynch, Adam has a job and Ronan just sits around pining, Domestic Boyfriends, Domestic Fluff, Dreams, Established Relationship, I Can't Blame Him, M/M, Post-The Raven Cycle, Ronan Lynch Loves Adam Parrish, Ronan finally gets to be a farmer, The Barns (Raven Cycle), but also pining bc Ronan has it bad for Adam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29241795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForestFable/pseuds/ForestFable
Summary: After their lives have been turned upside down by the events of The Raven Cycle, the Gangsey seeks out some much-needed respite. With Matthew staying with Declan in D.C. and the others on a cross-country road trip, Ronan has The Barns--and Adam--all to himself. Domestic dreams ensue.
Relationships: Ronan Lynch & Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish, pynch
Comments: 2
Kudos: 67





	Domestic Dreamer

**Author's Note:**

> The Barns ambiance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ9uyQI3pF0

Ronan Lynch looked down at his still unconscious body as he emerged from a dream. This temporary paralysis was how he knew for certain that he had brought something back with him.

As Ronan looked down at his own sleeping form, he spotted the dream-thing: a small, black box sitting on the pillow just above his head.

This was not the first of its kind. Far from it. This particular iteration had an intricate metallic inlay on each side, but it was the same general size, shape, and function as the others.

Ever since his father’s death, Ronan’s dreams had been fueled by stress, grief, and anger. His nightmares fed off whatever pain haunted him during his waking hours. The worse he felt, the more often he dreamed, and the more awful the items he brought back were.

This was the first time Ronan had found himself dreaming because he was happy—dreaming _frequently_ because he was _frequently_ happy. Which, Ronan learned, meant lots of dream-boxes.

Ronan began to regain feeling in his body as his consciousness settled back into his physical form. Once he could move again, he slowly reached one arm over his head to find the dream-box and hid it safely under his pillow, as he had done with each of its predecessors. Sighing with relief at his avoided embarrassment, Ronan returned his arm to its rightful place around Adam’s waist. Ronan slowly maneuvered himself closer to Adam, pulling the boy’s back up against his chest, careful not to wake him. Ronan’s other arm had gone completely numb under Adam’s head, but Ronan didn’t care; the pins and needles were worth getting to see Adam like this—soft, safe, relaxed. Adam, still asleep, curled himself deeper into Ronan’s embrace. Ronan smiled to himself at this instinctive gesture and buried his face in the soft golden hair at the nape of Adam’s neck. Ronan could lay like this for an eternity, listening blissfully to Adam’s boyish snores.

 _This_ was why Ronan dreamt so often these days. Almost every time they shared a bed, Ronan brought back a dream thing. He had almost no control over it. When his dreams were fueled by happiness, there were no survival instincts to remind him not to accidentally bring something back with him. Nightmares were, oddly, much easier to control.

And happy Ronan didn’t just dream nice things, he dreamed nice things _for Adam—_ almost all of them were embarrassing manifestations of his own feelings. But the black boxes were by far the most damning. Ronan, melting into the warmth of the still sleeping Adam, reminded himself to hide the newest box with the rest.

Matthew had gone to stay with Declan for the summer, allowing Ronan and Adam to play house at the Barns. Adam had moved in shortly after Gansey, Blue, and Henry set off on their cross-country road trip. Ronan had expected much more resistance to the suggestion from the once too-proud-for-help Adam, but the past year had left all of them exhausted and heavy; there was no better place to rest and recharge than the Lynch family farmhouse, and Adam couldn’t resist the temptation.

Ronan had Adam all to himself for a _whole year._ He still couldn’t believe it.

Two weeks after he moved in, Adam had sat solemnly across from Ronan at the dinner table, chewing the inside of his cheek as he considered his next words carefully.

“What’s wrong, Parrish? I can practically see the gears turning in there.” Ronan asked, trying hard to sound casual.

Adam took a deep breath. He kept his eyes trained on his plate as he spoke.

“What would you say if… If I asked to stay here longer.”

“Longer? I thought we already agreed that you’d stay the whole summer.”

“Yeah—yeah, we did. I meant… longer than that.”

Ronan stared at him for a long moment.

“I’m not worth it, Adam,” Ronan responded, putting down his fork and knife. “You worked too hard to throw away your shot at Harvard for your dead-beat boyfriend.”

“No, no, it’s not- well, not quite like that. I already deferred. I deferred for a year.”

Ronan raised both eyebrows but said nothing.

“It’s too soon. This year has been… too much. I just need some time to get my head on straight and put some of this shit behind me. There’s no way I can focus on classes and ‘extracurriculars’ right now.”

Adam hurried on before Ronan could respond.

“Plenty of people take a gap year—Blue, Gansey, and Henry, are, too. I don’t want to go on some crazy road trip, but I do need some time to just… decompress. And I can work while I’m here and build up more towards tuition.” He paused. “I’m not doing this because of you. I need it for myself. But, consequently, I thought maybe we could use some of that time to just… live here, together.”

That night was the first night that Ronan had dreamed a black box—palm sized, made of heavy dark stone, and perfectly square. He had opened it before Adam woke up and, mortified at its contents, found a safe hiding place for it out in the main barn.

Ronan’s mind was still on today’s dream-box when Adam began to stir.

Adam was always slow to wake. Ronan, feeling his stomach growl, attempted to speed up the process ever so slightly. He pulled Adam closer and began kissing the side of his head, then his shoulder, then his upper back. Once Ronan’s lips reached Adam’s neck, Adam was awake enough to react with a small appreciative moan, tilting his head to give Ronan greater access to his neck. Ronan was embarrassed by how quickly and intensely his body reacted to such a small noise; he was suddenly very aware of Adam pressed up against his lap, which only made things worse.

Adam, almost fully awake now, turned his head to look first at their interlocked hips and then at Ronan’s blushing face, which he hid in the pillow behind Adam’s back. Adam turned over to face Ronan, fitting himself against him and kissing him good morning with a knowing smirk.

“You go to bed horny, you wake up horny, how do you get anything done like this?” Laughed Adam, only deepening Ronan’s blush.

“Hey! This is your fault, asshole. Take some ownership.”

Ronan had plenty of other retorts lined up in his head, but Adam was already kissing the places where Ronan’s back tattoo crept onto his neck and shoulder.

“Oh, I plan to.” Adam responded.

Adam climbed into Ronan’s lap and pinned Ronan’s hands above his head as he leaned down to kiss him again—gently, tauntingly.

“Goddammit, Parrish…” was all Ronan could get out. He felt like he could barely breath. He couldn’t even string together an entire sentence.

“What’s the magic word?” Taunted Adam, still straddling Ronan and kissing him very lightly along his jawline.

“Fuck off,” Ronan managed to get out.

Ronan felt Adam’s hot breath on his neck just below his jaw. Then he felt Adam’s teeth—slowly, deliberately, and bordering on painfully.

Ronan gasped.

Finally, he choked out a feeble “Please.”

And Adam obliged.

\---

Soon after breakfast, Adam went to his shift at the mechanic’s. He had quit his other jobs to give himself a bit of a break, but he enjoyed the mindless physical labor of crawling under cars and tightening gear shafts. He accepted free accommodation at the Barns and semi-free food (Ronan’s growing farm was quickly accounting for most of their basic needs), but he refused any assistance from Ronan with his tuition. And if he was honest with himself, he didn’t know who he was without a job and a paycheck.

After kissing Adam goodbye, Ronan set off across the still-dewy main field to make his daily rounds. His brightly colored hens clucked happily to him when they heard him coming. He fed and watered the chickens—each of which was a solid primary color—and collected their colorful eggs from the coop. 

The hot, July sun was already burning off the moisture on the ground as he made his way to the cattle. Chainsaw spotted him from her perch in a tall oak tree and cawed in greeting overhead, flying above of him in lazy circles. The four cows formed a line as he approached, awaiting inspection. Ronan greeted each in turn, checking them over for ticks and any injuries and giving them a good scratch behind the ears. Each of the cows produced a different kind of milk—whole milk, chocolate milk, almond milk, and a fourth kind that Ronan still couldn’t identify.

A storm had brought a tree down over the south fence of the cow pasture. As Ronan walked back to the main barn to retrieve his saw, he remembered the black box in his back pocket. Once inside the barn, Ronan found a ladder and made his way up to the dusty attic. Behind a stack of haybales was a nondescript chest made of cracked leather. Ronan hummed an old Johnny Cash song—one of Niall’s favorites—and the lock popped open.

Ronan sighed as he picked through the other dream-boxes. Today’s made 31 in total. They were all equally beautiful and equally embarrassing.

_When did my subconscious get so damn obsessed with getting hitched?_

Ronan opened the newest dream-box and saw that the ring it held—made of a beautiful flat silver—had the same inlay pattern as the box had but in black. It was absolutely stunning, but he hoped no one ever saw it.

Each of these boxes held a ring made specifically for Adam. Some had diamonds or emeralds, most were silver, and some had engravings along the inside in Latin or his dream language.

Ronan had never dreamed of a big white wedding. He had never thought he’d find someone worth spending the time to date, let alone that he’d want to marry. The whole concept of legally binding himself to someone else to prove his feelings felt counterfeit and unnecessary. And particularly unnecessary with his first boyfriend at the ripe age of 18.

But living at the Barns with Adam made Ronan feel like he was healing, like he was clearing out some of the broken glass and barbed wire that had torn him up inside him ever since finding Niall’s mangled body. The Barns had been a safe haven before his family had splintered apart, and here, with Adam, it felt like home again.

He never wanted this to end. He wanted this and only this forever. Hence the rings. That was his best guess, at least.

He placed the newest dream-box with the rest and locked the chest behind him.

\---

As Ronan bustled about the Barns tending to his animals and crops, he couldn’t stop thinking about Adam’s hands. It felt silly to be so preoccupied with thoughts of Adam when he was only gone for a few hours a day, but Ronan couldn’t help but miss him. Ronan thought about the coarse skin and gentle touch of Adam’s work-worn hands on his face. As much as he selfishly wished that Adam would quit his job, live happily off of Ronan’s exorbitant wealth, stay home and kiss him all day, he loved the way Adam smelled after work—a heady combination of sweat and gasoline.

He was still daydreaming about this morning when he heard Adam’s voice ring out across the field.

“Need any help, Lynch?”

Adam was already on his way over, the setting sun lighting his hair in a halo from behind. Ronan waved a hand to him and resumed sawing through the fallen tree. The dream-cows, like all of Ronan’s animals, had a particular affinity for Adam. They made low noises of greeting and demanded to be pet before letting him by. After he had earned passage, the cows followed Adam to where Ronan was working on the fence and gazed curiously at Ronan’s work. By the time Adam reached him, he had cut the tree into manageable sections.

“Help me carry these out to the woods, will ya? These idiots will just find a way to hurt themselves on them if I leave them in here.”

After they had cleared the wood from the pasture and fixed the collapsed section of fencing, the cows escorted them out of the pasture. The sun was just above the tree line as they crossed the main field. Ronan slipped his hand into Adam’s.

“How was work?”

“Two Mitsubishi’s today. Only an idiot would buy one of those. The transmission lasts two years max before giving up.”

“Only the dream ones are worth anything.”

Before they reached the house, Ronan stopped beneath a large beach tree and pulled Adam up against him. He kissed Adam roughly and then just held him for a moment.

Sweat and gasoline.

_I missed you._

Ronan still couldn’t believe he had Adam all to himself for a whole year.

Adam took a deep breath, still standing comfortably in Ronan’s embrace.

He was finally home.


End file.
